Eyes & Hands
Our "Eyes and Hands" project aims to highlight the experience of Anatolian women through the lens of their eyes, and through the skill of their hands. Eyes are the best expression of truth among our five sense organs, which is echoed in the common expression "eyes don't lie".
In line with the mission and vision of the future of the Sevda Aydın Foundation, we held face-to-face meetings with a limited number of women from Erzurum in the Anatolian steppe and photographed their eyes and hands in order to symbolize the hardship of Anatolian women, which is overlooked most of the time.
Being a woman in rural areas is more difficult than in metropolises. Women in rural areas have to be the center surrounding every area of life there. On the one hand, she is the one who manages her house, and on the other hand, she is the manager of plans, decisions and activities for production
Among our senses, on which poems, novels and songs are composed and that enable us to see the truth in all its brightness, are “the eyes that can never lie, in other words, the eyes are our windows that open to the truth!...”
There are also hands, merged with people and earth; there are callused hands in the fields, vineyards, and plateaus: Tired, broken, alone but always working, producing and having hope for the future. Here we would like to introduce you to the summarized success stories of our dexterous women struggling for existence…
We wanted their labor and values to be integrated within a symbolic expression with 'eyes and hands'. We wanted eyes that see, feel, and reflect emotions, and hands that shape matter to live forever by transforming them into visual art! Exactly at this stage of our project, the sublimity of meaning and understanding emerged.
We held face to face interviews with our women from Erzurum city center, its districts and villages. Representing the productive, self-sacrificing and long-suffering women of Anatolia, they were selected from among those who generate income by producing. We wanted to emphasize the importance of the superhuman effort, effort and value of being a 'Working Woman' in the countryside in our book and in our exhibition with the aim of creating social awareness. This awareness-raising effort has enabled the Foundation to meet with individuals and organizations that want to support Anatolian women and develop joint projects.
Our first exhibition on this topic was opened at the Conrad Hotel within the scope of the 12th International Bosphorus Summit held in Istanbul on 6-7 December 2021, and the collage works of our 28 women were presented to the participants.
Sample gallery:
articles on the project:
https://zorbatv.com/kultur/kulturel-miras/dogunun-incisi-erzurum